Posts: 2

Topic: A Yorkshire Tragedy

Clavane moves away from his LUFC obsessions to focus on Sheffield (red and blue), Rotherham, Barnsley, Featherstone Rovers, and Bratfud. The Bratfud ones are about football, but had he still been writing the book now, he might have put in an appropriate chapter about the demise of the Bulls.

The overall tone is depressing, hence the title, but he puts in enough fascinating detail about the clubs and the communities around them to make it a most entertaining read. I was less bothered by his choice to underpin the whole book with the familiar "Thatcherism destroyed the North" narrative. It's a perfectly valid narrative, don't get me wrong, but one that has been aired so many times before that it came across a bit tired here.

Oh, I almost forgot, an intriguing chapter on Yorkshire CCC.

Apologies (especially to Rudi). Another senior moment. There's also a very good chapter on Hull that describes the Hull/Hull KR divide in a way that I doubt any of the official Culture City spiel could do.

Re: A Yorkshire Tragedy

Just finished this and I agree with Pip- the presence of Thatcherism (whichever side you take) isn't something that most of us need to re-visit.

Some great little anecdotes within though about the likes of RL legends Sammy Lloyd and Vince Farrar. Also good to be reminded about Rotherham pumping Chelsea twice in 1981.

Think there's a slow strangulation going on involving a lot of sport round here, at many levels.

Used to be 6 football pitches in Wakey park. Only 1 pitch now and there's never anyone on it when I'm passing. Cas Sunday league has folded. Lad I know who's been involved with a team since the mid-70s reckons in 10 years' time there'll be hardly any Sunday morning football round our way.